How it all began

It all started back in 2018 when a group of employees explored opportunities to give back in a meaningful way. The group identified a few initiatives and word quickly spread amongst the organization. Overwhelmed by the interest and inundated with requests to participate, the initiative was quickly developed into a month-long event with a whole program of volunteering options. Now in its sixth year, the program has grown from strength to strength and spread to our global entities, with Delivery Hero’s network of brands now participating with local employees – proving that our international community holds the same values across our ecosystem.

For those who don’t know, Hero Month is an initiative that runs throughout the month of October and every year our employees show no sign of hesitation by signing up to participate in a range of activities with the shared aim of giving back in a meaningful way. This year was no different with most sessions being completely booked up before the month even started! This led our Heroes to get even more creative, with many becoming self initiated Volunteer Captains, which enabled them to organize their own activities and create even more opportunities for others to give back.

What went down?

Sporty Heroes managed to combine a love of running with volunteering by organizing a ‘plogging’ session. The activity combines litter picking and jogging to create an exciting afternoon which saw keen runners from across the company clear green spaces, roads and walkways of rubbish within a 5km radius of the Delivery Hero HQ office in Berlin.

Aspiring chefs and sandwich makers got to work by preparing 200+ sandwiches for the homeless. The session started with an informative talk about the housing crisis in Germany, confronting statistics and stories of how some find themselves in difficult living conditions. This inspired participants who spent the afternoon slicing, buttering, loading, wrapping and labeling loaves with an array of fillings that would be distributed at shelters across the city.

Other projects included clearing and planting at local garden projects, repainting a housing shelter for refugees, nurturing tree seedlings to support new tree plantations outside of the city, sorting second hand clothes at a local center for families in need, litter picking (without the jogging!) and much, much more. This was reflected by some impressive stats with over 200+ employees getting involved who clocked up almost 1,000 volunteering hours, with many Heroes signing up for multiple activities across the month.

Building a sense of community

Not only did it bring a sense of community to our Heroes and give them a chance to connect outside of the office, Hero Month gives employees a unique sense of satisfaction and fulfilment, by dedicating time to help others in need. With 97% of participants confirming that they would love to volunteer again – this is a surefire sign that the initiative will continue to be a success as we head into 2024. Not only did participants walk away with full hearts, they also got hold of some impressive merchandise – shiny new pins were distributed amongst participants and worn with pride to heighten that all important sense of community.

Still interested in learning more? Check out the wrap up video below!

I joined in 2020 as an Associate Product Manager. I started off my career in product by owning some smaller products while senior managers would handle the communication and collaboration across multiple borders. But with time I was up for the task of leading it on my own. Working across many time zones has been a challenge but a great opportunity to learn. Here are five tips for working with multiple stakeholders across borders.

Trust

The firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something is the main contributor to fulfilling relationships. Initially, trust is built while getting to know each other, while working together for a period of time or when conducting business with one another. It is very much dependent on time. Trust happens if the trust giver has more to lose than to gain. With distributed teams and stakeholders across all borders, it is hard to have that time to build trust by sitting together or looking for visual cues in one another. 

We can build trust by using different existing tools and guidelines. For example, using a safe space, a certain call where we introduce ourselves by using playful boards and share some fun facts about ourselves. Having support from SCRUM masters gives the audience a better feeling of that safe space. The SCRUM master acts as a neutral moderator who is able to grasp the group’s mood as well as moderate the session and guide everyone in the right direction of the agenda. Another option that has a high impact is to meet in person before and while kicking off a project with stakeholders. Meeting in person gives everyone a chance to build trust while getting to know and working with each other for some days.

Ownership

Taking and managing ownership is one of the key soft skills I look for in colleagues and stakeholders. For small and big projects with colleagues from the same entity as well as with stakeholders, it needs to be clear and documented which parts of the project are owned by whom. Finding common ground in the division of tasks and ownership is key before kicking off the project. Ownership leads to higher motivation and a higher likelihood of delivering projects of good quality. It delivers superior business performance as well. It is not about having one person to blame, but rather about having that one person to communicate with, support, and celebrate. Ownership can change over time. This can be the case if for example the strategy, organizational or architectural setup changes. But no one has to be afraid of those changes.

Status Reports

Shareholders have no time to track the changes themselves. We have come up with a weekly email update layout that is being sent by one of the product managers to a certain audience including the senior management level. It helps communicate changes and milestones to all parties involved, shows ownership, and builds trust in diverse and distributed teams. The nicest task for me is to share celebrations and milestones on that weekly mail update followed by being recognized and celebrated by the c-level or senior management level as well. In reality, it does not happen all the time as there are milestones getting delayed or blockers being faced. But in the end, the appreciation of our management levels is very high which gives me a super fulfilling emotion.

Face to Face meetings

I am a huge fan of social interaction when it comes to collaboration and big projects. Nowadays many of our stakeholder offices including us tend to be more flexible around remote work than before COVID-19 hit. While working remotely and without seeing each other every day it is still possible and very productive to have a face-2-face kick-off meeting. It can have a great positive influence on the team. What makes it even better is using that time on the ground, in whichever office you meet, and getting out for some leisure fun activities together. We are not only working better together but we are also broadening our minds and learning about the local culture and lifestyle. Let’s be thankful for traveling every once in a while, broadening our horizons, and getting human social connections with colleagues.

Empathy

Empathy is one of the few underrated skills that are not really considered in interviews but are vital. Crucial in the success of group projects. The more in tune you are with the needs of your team and your client, and the more effort you put into understanding those needs, the greater chance the project has of being successful. But it means requiring more time to make changes, taking time to have face-to-face meetings to connect with someone who is struggling, and letting them know that you understand.

Being empathetic is the most you can do. It requires a lot of effort but can make all the difference when it comes to the outcome of your project. In regards to stakeholder relationships, it means checking in every once in a while and evaluating the relationship you are having. Thanks to empathy and therefore understanding where each other is coming from and struggling with, in the end, we have always come back to a great and successful team mindset to deliver the product in the best quality and on time. 

Through all the lessons I learned and tools I shared you see what complexity stakeholder management across borders can bring. Sharing successes and having a great impact cross-regional is the reward that comes with such projects.

One of the most rewarding aspects of working at Delivery Hero for me has been to be part of the huge global product and stakeholder community. Sharing the same great values across all borders means we all have a great focus on delivering solutions, always aiming higher and caring for one another. Infused with local aspects, it means learning a lot of human and technical aspects about and from each other. This creates a great professional setup to keep growing together as a company as well as a team. With the wide range of local brands and such great stakeholder relationships as well as high professionality, we are united behind our shared mission to always deliver an amazing experience.

Our focus remains on creating meaningful change and a more sustainable industry. Read on to discover our take on the top three focus areas for the upcoming year that will shape the tech and delivery industry in a positive way.

Commitment to caring

Delivery Hero is committed to making a positive contribution to every aspect of its ecosystem and the world as a whole and 2023 is no different.

Delivery Hero’s partnership with ShareTheMeal has allowed for many customers to help fight hunger with a few simple clicks, whilst they order food, as the donation button is integrated into the app. In 2022 Delivery Hero had donated 10 million meals and as the commitment to the program continues in the upcoming year this number will only rise.

Furthermore in 2022 Delivery Hero joined the United Nations Global Compact initiative (“UNGC.”) The UNGC is a voluntary leadership platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible business practices.

In 2023 Delivery Hero will continues to use all opportunities to care for its ecosystem the best it can.

Global Collaboration

The ability to collaborate and share expertise is one of the greatest advantages of being a global company. Being able to learn worldwide from colleagues and apply this knowledge on a local level helps Delivery Hero thrive. In 2022 Delivery Hero launched its first Engineer Exchange program with Woowa in South Korea to fully realize the potential of collective knowledge. In line with this Delivery Hero hosted its first Global Web Summit, a three day internal global summit, with over 40 speakers from across the globe.

Harnessing the full power of a global company will only grow in importance in 2023, as traveling becomes easier once again the chances to grow and learn together will only increase and help further innovation in the upcoming year.

Employee Wellbeing

The wellbeing of all Heroes is a core principle at Delivery Hero, starting with the value: We are Heroes because we care. For a third time, Delivery Hero has been certified a Great Place to Work. But this is not all – Delivery Hero has also appointed new members to its second Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board. The board is set up to act as a body of experience and expertise, striving to influence and improve Delivery Hero’s D&I strategy and approach.

Its Employee Resource Groups also continue to increase in numbers and in 2023 Delivery Hero is excited to see all the internal communities join together to help promote a more inclusive and supportive work environment. This fully rounded commitment to employees wellbeing and safety is a top priority and will further contribute to helping Delivery Hero continue to push the envelope and innovate the industry in 2023.

Continuation of the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board

A cornerstone of Delivery Hero’s company culture is fostering a community of inclusion. Delivery Hero is aware that the journey to full equality is a long one and is committed to continuing to implement changes that have a long-lasting impact for a more fair and equal workplace. In order to continue its dedication to Diversity and Inclusion, last year Delivery Hero launched the first-ever Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board. As an integral part of our company culture, the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board (DAB) will advise Delivery Hero in creating an inclusive workplace that welcomes individuals irrespective of their background, culture, or identity. The DAB will go into its second year in 2023, and will continue to make a difference throughout the company

The UN Global Compact

This year Delivery Hero joined the United Nations Global Compact initiative (“UNGC”), in line with its intention to build a company that future generations can be proud of. The UNGC is a voluntary leadership platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible business practices. In becoming a participant, Delivery Hero proudly joins more than 15,000 companies and 3,800 non-business entities, based in over 160 countries worldwide, that actively commit to taking responsibility for their environmental and social impact. With the decision to join the UNGC, Delivery Hero is committing to uphold the UNGC principles, and contribute to the development of a more sustainable environment through its CSR & Sustainability initiatives, including its existing sustainable packaging program and global food donation scheme. This participation is driven by one of the company’s core values: “we always aim higher” as Delivery Hero continues its commitment to its sustainable and ethical practices

Glovo joins Delivery Hero

This year Delivery Hero has become the majority shareholder of Glovo and will hold approximately 94% of shares on a non-diluted basis in the leading multi-category delivery platform. The Spanish quick-commerce start-up was founded in Barcelona, Spain in 2015 and has gone on to become a leading player in the industry. Glovo’s strong presence in Southern Europe and EEMEA complements Delivery Hero’s global footprint, bringing the total number of countries up to 74 and serving up to 2.2 billion people across four continents. The strategic partnership resulting from this transaction will allow both companies to leverage each other’s technological and operational expertise.

In order to demystify the various job titles, we take an in-depth look at what they really mean and give a behind-the-scenes peek at the inner workings of the company. Read on to find out more about what Jaime Sanchez, Glovo’s Staff Engineer at Growth cluster, actually does!

What is your job title and which team and brand are you part of?

I’m a Staff Engineer on the tech team at Glovo. I work on the Growth cluster where we build tech systems to acquire new customers, enable discount mechanics and loyalty programs to build a habit of ordering through Glovo. We are also responsible for calculating operational fees associated with an order, the most known one being the delivery fee.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I conduct my day in two parts. In the mornings, I wear the leader hat, where my goal is to produce artifacts that are relevant to the cluster of teams that I work with. Those artifacts can be code changes, technical designs, proposals for new processes, or proof of concepts to validate different solutions to a problem. Then, in the afternoons, I wear the supporter hat, where my goal is to help individuals and unblock them if needed. The outputs are not very tangible here, but equally important. I provide feedback on pull requests, technical documents, and whiteboarding sessions. I have regular one on ones with engineering managers and other individual contributors.

What do you like most about your job?

At Glovo the Staff Engineer role is a leadership one. As such, you have a great deal of autonomy, which is what I love the most about working here. It’s up to you to find problems and prioritize them, deciding what’s most critical and deserving of your attention. It works best when management trusts you and it takes very little time to align. It’s understood that you’ve demonstrated a great deal about your technical and non-technical skills during the very strict interview (or promotion) process.

Could you summarize your core tasks?

I’d like to say that my ultimate mission is to help other people around me grow to the point that I become redundant. Then I can move on to a different part of the company where I can be of more help.

What surprises people most about your job?

Without a doubt, the thing that surprises people most is that Staff engineers are leaders without authority as it is typically understood. You don’t have people reporting to you but, at the same time, you influence a lot of people to move a set of technical systems built by 60-80 engineers to a better long-term state.

foodpanda Malaysia

Foodpanda Malaysia has taken home two awards at Marketing Magazine Asia’s Dragons of Malaysia Awards Night 2022. The team was given  gold for the Q-Commerce Leader and Best Small Budget category for their Meal Prep Kit campaign and bronze for the Best Use of Public Relations. Foodpanda was announced as a finalist in September of this year, with the final ceremony taking place a week ago in November. 

The Dragons of Malaysia Marketing Communications Recognition Programme is in its 10th year and is run by Marketing Magazine Asia Malaysia’s top  marketing communications content hub.

Covid-19 was a major challenge for everyone and it is wonderful to see foodpanda Malaysia’s commitment to serving their community and customers throughout these unprecedented times recognized.

talabat

Talabat has been named “Foodtech Company of the Year” during The Tech Innovation Awards 2022 by Entrepreneur Middle East on November 14th 2022. 

This award is testament to talabat’s continuous strive and appetite for innovation across its operations, with the aim of delivering an exceptional experience for its partners and customers alike.

Entrepreneur Middle East is a Dubai based magazine that aims to act as a guide for the region’s entrepreneurs and business-minded readership, and from autonomous delivery robots and robotic baristas during the six months of Expo 2020 Dubai, the introduction of drone delivery in Qatar and Oman to new innovative solutions and experiences, talabat has shown it is at the forefront of innovation.

foodpanda Philippines

foodpanda Philippines has been recognised by HR Asia Awards (Best Companies to Work For in Asia) as an employer that champions equality, diversity, and inclusion. 
The HR Asia Awards recognizes organizations gaining a comparative advantage through their people development and this year foodpanda Philippines was honored to be chosen.

Foodpanda Philippines is dedicated to maintaining a company culture of inclusion and their employees well-being and ability to be themselves at work is at the heart of what they do.

Caring for our four legged friends with Yemeksepeti

Yemeksepeti sprang into action and through its existing page within the Mutlu Patiler (Happy Paws) app, Yemeksepeti employees could enter and participate to earn points that were then converted into animal food. To make the event even more special the employees themselves went to deliver the food to the shelter, along with plenty of love, attention, and belly rubs for our canine and feline friends. Overall, Yemeksepeti had 66 volunteers contribute 318 of their own hours throughout Hero Month!

Donating with foodpanda Laos

One of the great things about being a global company is that many brands have their own initiatives  that harmoniously compliment Hero Month. foodpanda Loas just launched their volunteer campaign – foodpanda Cares – with the goal of donating and giving back to the local community. The team collected over 500 clothing items, stationery, and sporting goods that will benefit kids in Southern Laos. The small but mighty team of 34 employees volunteered a total of 58 hours in Laos alone.

Picking up trash with the Delivery Hero Europe team in Hungary

At Delivery Hero giving back to the communities we work and operate in is a priority. Remaining true to this vision, this Hero Month more than 80 employees from Delivery Hero Europe in Budapest, Hungary got together and collected nearly 100 bags of trash from the street. The goal was to support the local community, and with an overall total of 97 volunteers who dedicated 338 hours of their own time the commitment to Delivery Hero Europe’s local ecosystem was felt. Additionally the initiative evolved into a full team-building event as many colleagues came to enjoy the day together, getting to know each other better while cleaning! 

Overall 2193 total volunteers across the entire company dedicated their time through Hero Month. This amounts to 5834 hours of service, a large jump in comparison with the 1950 hours dedicated by our Heroes in 2021. One of Delivery Hero’s core values is: “We are Heroes because we care” and this month Delivery Hero employees truly lived up to this value.

What is it?

Non-financial information is often defined as Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) information. For certain companies (usually public enterprises with a high number of employees and turnover), it is mandatory to publish a non-financial report on an annual basis. While the regulations might differ between countries and regions, the goal remains the same: Providing transparency for stakeholders about a company’s ESG related activities.

The non-financial reporting team sits within the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and Sustainability team at Delivery Hero. The team is responsible for creating the annual non-financial report, collection and coordination of non-financial data and disclosures, coordination of non-financial risk and materiality assessments as well as the external assurance that happens on the report every year. They are a team that is truly multi-functional as they work with teams across the Headquarters and around the world.
The Non-financial Report (NFR) is published on the Delivery Hero website along with the Annual Report, towards the end of Q1 every year (usually March or April).

The report is created in collaboration with the Annual Report project teams and has a separate section within it. This aligns our financial and non-financial information together and everything can easily be found for external stakeholders in one place.

Creating a report

Delivery Hero’s NFR falls under the German regulation and the company has to follow the respective requirements. The creation of a non-financial report entails many different steps and smaller and bigger tasks. It involves a lot of stakeholder engagement and collaboration, since input from various departments is required. 

As a first step, one needs to define which topics should be covered in the NFR, the so-called ‘material topics’. At Delivery Hero, this is done via internal and external stakeholder surveys, which helps the team to define the impact that a topic has on the business operations and also the impact Delivery Hero has with its operation on the environment, society etc. Based on this, the ‘material’ and most important topics for Delivery Hero are defined. 

As a next step the team reaches out to internal stakeholders from different departments, who are responsible for the ‘material’ topics. they collect qualitative and quantitative data from them, such as information on specific programs, targets or achieved KPIs for the reporting year.

Once they have collected the data, they put everything into a flowing and summarizing text. They do this with the help of an experienced external agency. The text is reviewed by several stakeholders within the business. 

The report is then assured by an external auditor. This means that a team of ESG experts looks at the drafted report and verifies through requesting internal evidence for the information within the report, if everything is correct and accurate. Once everything is confirmed, the report is ready to be published.

The future of the report

Stakeholders’ interest and awareness for ESG topics are increasing rapidly and with Delivery Hero being a publicly traded company, it is important to Delivery hero that it provides a transparent and accurate non-financial information for its stakeholders. By reporting on ESG topics annually, the team are able to provide insights on the development and progress of the global engagements and projects.

While financial reporting has been standardized around the world for many years, non-financial reporting has not had a globally enforceable set of sustainability standards followed by global organizations around the world yet. Most initiatives and standards in use are primarily voluntary and often leave room for different interpretations. This has caused a lot of confusion for companies and readers to be able to navigate through a spectrum of different reporting standards and formats. However, there has been a lot of change throughout the past years in the non-financial reporting space and it is exciting to see where it will go in the future.

It is clear that non-financial reporting will become more and more important in the future. There is a rising interest in published reports and in many regions around the world, reporting standards and regulations will be strengthened and require companies to disclose more details on their ESG practices and performance. Going forward, non-financial reports will become a normal and widely accepted business practice for companies to adopt. Also, standard reporting, like the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) or the EU Taxonomy will make it possible for stakeholders to compare companies regarding their ESG performance among each other but also on an annual basis with more consistent and accurate data..

Non-financial reporting is at a very exciting period of time as there are many regulatory changes that are occurring at an EU level and the rest of the world. Delivery Hero’s CSR team is excited and interested to see how the non-financial reporting landscape evolves going forward.

Read on to find out exactly how our Heroes came together to make this global initiative happen.

From the inside out

I am Liana Barcia and I am part of the Internal Communications and Events team at Develiver Hero Central, which is under the Corporate Communications Team. I work on central and global business events and internal communication campaigns for a range of topics – such as people and culture, business strategy, and crisis and change. 

My role involves making sure that all Heroes know everything they need to know about Hero Month – why we do it, why it’s important, what it looked like in the past, why it’s worth participating in, how they can sign up and volunteer. While the CSR Team has taken the lead in organizing Hero Month and making sure everything runs smoothly, I need to see to it that all their hard work is communicated clearly and well, so that employees are empowered to engage and participate in the month’s events. I also work closely with Len of Social Media, and together we take care of all the communications around this project. The goal is to tell the story cohesively, clearly, and in an engaging and interesting way. My work involves regularly checking in with Len and the CSR Team, aligning, sharing ideas, materials, content whenever possible. It has been a real collaboration. 

My role involves two “dimensions” – central internal communications and global internal communications. Central communications were a bit easier to prepare because it is already Delivery Hero’s 5th Hero Month, which means we have some past communication plans and drafts that we could build on. The CSR Team also already had some learnings from the past, even from a communications-perspective. 

The more challenging part of this year’s Hero Month, at least from an internal communications perspective, is also what made it more unique and special – the global dimension. Although Hero Month has been happening for a number of years across some Delivery Hero brands and entities, this year is the first time we wanted to link all the different global initiatives and tell one coherent story. This was in place of brands and entities previously just communicating individually, to their local markets. We felt that it was a waste to have the different entities continue on their own volunteering initiatives in parallel, without highlighting the common threads that we have, such as making an impact and living out our value of care in our communities.

Deciding how to communicate more globally was challenging because we had not done it before, so there were no existing processes, or even any knowledge of the different capacities of the entities, or any alignment on what it meant to have a more unified global Hero Month. Len and I then met with the various comms and CSR Teams across the Delivery Hero Group, and together with all of them, we arrived at a flexible comms plan that encouraged the different entities to tell their stories about volunteering and making an impact. It’s been a great experience because we wanted to all learn from each other, and we revised our plans a few times to accommodate new learnings or insights from our counterparts. From the process, we also learned that we need a bit more time to work on such a big project – so next year we plan to meet two months in advance to plan the global communications with all our participating entities. What we would really love is to be able to highlight what is unique or interesting about the way different brands and entities “do” Hero Month, so that we can all learn from each other. 

Getting the word out

I am Len McCarthy and I sit within the Digital Communications team, which is part of the wider Corporate Communications team here at Delivery Hero Central in Berlin, and I’m responsible for all things comms from a Social Media standpoint.

Alongside my team, we conceptualize and create content that reflects Delivery Hero’s identity, and effectively tells the story of the company across our Social Media channels for a consistent brand image. I also offer support on various projects across the company from a Social Media perspective. This includes working closely with various other stakeholders within the business, fielding their requests on cool things they have going on that they’d like to communicate to an external audience but maybe just need some extra guidance on how to tell their story the Delivery Hero way. And this is exactly where I fit in for Hero Month!

For this campaign my role is to make sure we’re telling the story of Hero Month in an exciting, easy-to-follow way for our external audience on Social Media.

Most importantly, it needs to be engaging and informative! Everyone who works at Delivery Hero knows about Hero Month (thanks in part to Liana!) and why it’s important to us, but we can’t assume an external audience will know what it is, and what exactly we’re trying to achieve with it. 

This is the first year we went truly global with Hero Month, we had to make sure we were aligned with all of our amazing entities around the world. Some entities had taken part before, but this edition of Hero Month has every brand taking part in some capacity. Liana and I came together and met with the various comms teams from around the Delivery Hero world to chat about what to expect – from what Hero Month has looked like in the past, to what we could do together going forward. Hero Month is a great opportunity to highlight our shared passion of making a positive impact together, and show that we believe in our core value of being Heroes because we care across all of our locations throughout the world.

One thing I was really conscious about was making sure nothing looked opportunistic or self-gratifying. Whilst it’s my job to communicate about the different initiatives going on for Hero Month on social media, I also want to make sure it’s clear that we’re taking part in these activities because we genuinely care and want to give back to the causes we care about within our communities. Hopefully our communications inspire and give ideas to other companies who want to start their own volunteer initiatives!

Although this was my first Hero Month, I could tell we were building upon an already-impactful and meaningful initiative. 

This Hero Month was especially different because we really wanted to emphasize the global aspect; we’re a company operating in 70+ markets across 4 continents, and we have an opportunity to contribute in a positive way to so many communities because of this. Also, many of our entities have been carrying out charitable initiatives for a while now, but this was the first time we really united as one under the Hero Month umbrella, so it’s cool to be coming together under the one global initiative.

Organizing volunteers

I am Carmen Loesche and I am a Senior Specialist Corporate Social Responsibility and part of the CSR & Sustainability team at Delivery Hero Central in Berlin. Our team is in charge of managing the corporate volunteering initiatives for Delivery Hero.

This year was my second Hero Month, which is very exciting because I was able to use my experience and learnings from last year to take the organization of Hero Month to the next level. This year was easier to facilitate in-person events and to bring larger groups together compared to the last few years. It was really great to see our Heros meeting, wanting to connect and jointly give back again! Apart from our office in Berlin, we always have some of our global brands joining the initiative as well – this year we had more brands than ever before participating, which makes Hero Month even more a global and joint initiative for Delivery Hero. Furthermore, while I was organizing Hero Month by myself last year, we had support from different teams across Delivery Hero this year, which was really helpful and the whole initiative feels like a great team effort.

This year, one of my main tasks was to organize the events, which means connecting and aligning with the local partner organizations to see how and when we can support them best and to be their point of contact. I also managed our group of volunteer champions, which is a dedicated group of volunteers, who take the lead on one or more events, which is a great help for us.

It’s overall a very busy time when Hero Month comes around, however;  it is a lot of fun to work together with the different teams and people and no day looks the same or runs as planned.

I am really proud of what we were able to organize this year, how dedicated the volunteer champions were and the feedback we got from volunteers and also organizations on how our efforts and help were appreciated and useful to them. Hearing this kind of feedback always puts a smile on my face and makes me really happy about my job and the impact we can provide with Hero Month.

It recently launched operations in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city and in March 2021 their office was opened.

Instashop is dedicated to delivering a convenient and seamless experience to their customers. In order for their customers to have more time to enjoy doing the things they love the most with the people they love the most, it is vital to create a working environment that allows for a productive and smooth atmosphere.

Taking a look inside

Located in the heart of Thessaloniki, Instashop’s newest office houses more than 60 employees and the office is spread out over 399 square meters.
When you enter on the ground floor you are greeted by the bright and cheery InstaShop colors that guide you along as you walk into the space. The entire office is decorated in InstaShop colors including cute company inspired emojis of the Burj Khalifa and iconic Greek landmarks along with other fun graphics for a whimsical touch.

To increase collaboration and the overall well being of the team an open office plan was chosen for the light and airy new office. Scattered throughout the office are bean bags for employees to relax and switch up their working day (and of course take a quick break when needed).

To allow employees a mental break an arcade machine was added. Here employees can take a short moment and switch off or bond after work with colleagues offering social opportunities for colleagues to connect. Allowing space for employees to not just work but play leads to not only increase in satisfaction and performance, but also creativity.

For private meetings or a silent work space to concentrate, the office is also equipped with smaller soundproof meeting booths. These are equipped with a small meeting desk and space enough for four on comfy red seats.

To add to the cozy feeling of the office there is also a comfy blue couch surrounded by inspirational slogans and graphics. Next to this comfortable corner is the office kitchen, with plenty of tables for the whole team. The fully equipped kitchen is decorated in complimentary colors enveloped in the Instashop pink and has everything you would need to make yourself a delicious lunch (or grab a complimentary piece of fruit as a snack.)

The small but bright office provides a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere for employees to do their best work, but also to feel supported in their everyday needs. Delivery Hero’s core value of “We are Heroes because we care” is a shared commitment that binds everyone across the company and seeing it come into play in the space provided to Delivery Hero employees worldwide is heartwarming.

We caught up with Narek to learn more about what a typical day in Barcelona looks like for the CTO.

What does a typical work day look like for you?

One thing I love about working at Glovo is that the employees are connected to the values of transparency, care, respect, and social responsibility in everything we do. As the CTO, I’m responsible for hundreds of engineering, data, IT, and security employees working in Barcelona, Madrid, and Warsaw. Of course, there is no such thing as a typical work day when experiencing hypergrowth – but there are a few things I try to do every week.

One day a week, I like to sit with my immediate team and make sure we discuss urgent topics and priorities and focus on strategy, vision, and how we want to shape the organization going forward. Then, on a different day in the week, I spend time with the leadership team to ensure everything we are doing in tech is aligned and that the communication channels between various departments are always open. As CTO, I believe it’s super important to get to know my team, so once a week, I also host an open “office hours” session – one hour virtually and one hour in person. During this time, anyone can “drop by” and discuss whatever topic is on their mind.

How do you ensure that your daily tasks fit within the broader scope of your strategy, mission, and vision?

Every engineer at Glovo has a responsibility to uphold our values. This is just as important as achieving our OKRs (Objectives & Key Results). So when we strive for reliability, more experimentation, or faster learning at work, we measure and evaluate this success alongside our values. The two always go hand in hand at Glovo – no exceptions – and contribute to higher efficiency. We have focused on this from day one as we grew from a small start-up to an international tech-first company with scarce resources. We keep efficiency and optimization on top of mind while pushing to keep delivering innovative solutions for our stakeholders.

How do you collaborate and keep in touch with colleagues across the world? What are the challenges and opportunities of working on global projects?

We are continually exploring collaboration at Glovo, given the complicated set-up of our business. With operations in more than 20 countries and being part of the wider Delivery Hero group, we have to keep in touch and work on projects with colleagues worldwide. Our technology needs to be as diverse as the countries we operate in, which means we have to collaborate and develop synergies, helping us to become even more efficient and deliver value in the shortest possible way. 

But there is also an opportunity to leverage existing global services to enhance our efforts. If the technology exists, we use it. It means we can refine and prioritize our resources, spending time building new products and technology.

What’s something that you’re excited to be working on right now?

At Glovo, we’ve set the bar high, so there are always exciting initiatives that we work on. However, I have been spending a lot of time building the most agile organization, which can respond rapidly to change, faster than our competitors.

This is why one of our core focuses in Data has been transforming to the paradigm of Data Mesh. As one of the earliest adopters of this approach worldwide, we aim to make it easier for anyone in the company to access high-quality, trustworthy data to maximize the experience for users, partners, and couriers alike.